Embed from Getty Images Here’s a simple observation: if full-time department managers in a small town’s government can’t develop and execute repairs to the city’s parking lots without repeated prodding from the town’s part-time council members, then there’s not much that city government can do. Full-time, publicly-paid leaders should have enough pride in their town…
City
City, Culture, Economics, Politics, School District, University
Plain-Spoken in a Small Town? Not Most Leaders
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a quaint – but false – notion that people in small towns are uncommonly plain-spoken, even blunt. One sometimes sees examples of this in films or books, where residents are depicted as folksy straight-talkers (“shucks, I don’t cotton to no one abusing nobody,” etc.). I’ve never heard anyone in Whitewater speak so colorfully, and I’ve…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, In the Heart of the Sea
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Development, Economy, Free Markets, Government Spending, Local Government
The Local Economic Context of It All
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over a generation, Whitewater’s big-ticket public spending (where big ticket means a million or more per project in a city of about fifteen-thousand) has come with two, often-contradictory justifications: (1) that residents needed to spend so much because Whitewater was the very center of things, or (2) that residents needed to spend so much to assure that…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Free State of Jones
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Tuesday, November 22nd at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of The Free State of Jones @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. In The Free State of Jones, from 2016, a “disillusioned Confederate army deserter returns to Mississippi and leads a militia of fellow deserters, runaway slaves, and women…
America, City, Federal Government, Local Government, Politics
The National-Local Mix
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, The Legend of Tarzan
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Holiday
Boo! Scariest Things in Whitewater, 2016
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s the tenth annual FREE WHITEWATER list of the scariest things in Whitewater for 2016. The 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 editions are available for comparison. The list runs in reverse order, from mildly frightening to truly scary. 10. It’s Gremlins. Ordinarily, people assume that the success or failure of government policy rests…
America, City, Development, Economy, Free Markets
Small Towns in America Can Thrive
by JOHN ADAMS •
I posted recently about James Fallows’s Eleven Signs That a City Will Succeed. (See, from FW, James Fallows on ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed’ (Part 1) and an assessment of those signs for Whitewater, James Fallows on ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed’ (Part 2).) In the video below, James & Deborah Fallows talk…
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, 12:30 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Young Frankenstein
by JOHN ADAMS •
This Tuesday, October 25th at 12:30 PM, there will be a showing of Young Frankenstein @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin community building. In Young Frankenstein, an “American grandson of the infamous scientist, struggling to prove that his grandfather is not as insane as people believe, is invited to Transylvania, where he discovers…
City
James Fallows on ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed’ (Part 2)
by JOHN ADAMS •
I wrote yesterday about James Fallows‘s ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed.’ Today’s post considers whether his list applies to Whitewater, and how Whitewater fares if items on the list – at least in part – apply to our small city. One word of caution applies to Fallows’s list: it was compiled after he visited cities larger than Whitewater.…
City
James Fallows on ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed’ (Part 1)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at The Atlantic, and connected to that publication’s American Futures series, James Fallows writes about ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed.’ Today, I’ll list Fallows’s eleven signs, and tomorrow, I’ll write about whether the list applies to Whitewater, and how Whitewater fares to the extent that the list is applicable. (The list is sure to…
City, Culture, Local Government, Politics
Twenty-Five Years On: School Board & City
by JOHN ADAMS •
Alternative title: Culture Advances While Beyond Politics Far Lags Behind. Over at the Banner, there’s a new feature entitled, “A mini-look at local history – a new Banner Monday project!” The 10.10.16 entry is about two public actions from twenty-five years ago. I’m all for history (local or otherwise), but the entry is telling coming from a…
City, Education, Politics, School District
At Whitewater’s Common Council Meeting, 10.4.16
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are a few moments from last night’s Common Council meeting that I’ll consider briefly today. Budget. It’s fall, and so for Whitewater’s local government that means a proposed budget rollout, and Council sessions principally occupied with that subject through November. On efficiency of government services, City Manager Clapper remarked that one can expect municipal…